If I’m totally honest with myself, my interest in multi-day backpacking has waned somewhat over the last few years.

There are many reasons for this, but I guess the main one is that I’m pretty darn happy getting stuck into the geeky stuff that most geeks get up to. This has left me with little to no time for planning and executing long trips into the great outdoors.

Speaking of geeky things, I have also decided to get back to my roots and do a spot of Astro-Imaging after a 13 year absence. To that end I have started a new blog over at https://ukastroimager.wordpress.com/.

In terms of hiking, I will probably continue to put in the odd walk every now and again, but these will be private affairs and will not be published.

My intent is to leave this site up as it has a lot of useful information for people wanting to get started on their path into the great outdoors.

As a hobby, it was great fun and provided many positive side effects. It had kept me fit, taught me numerous useful skills and brought out a certain self-reliance that has helped on countless occasions.

Being outdoors can also help with your quiescent level of happiness. Most of my walks end up engaging a full ear-to-ear grin. This is from an introvert that didn’t like going out! So if you need a boost, I highly recommend that you force yourself out of the door – you will not regret it!

However, by far the most useful thing I took away from this hobby is that of perspective.

We all get caught up in our careers and the other complexities of life. These can often exert pressures of many kinds – some of which aren’t very pleasant. However, when one is out and about on a solo hike, one is isolated from all this which is a great way to relax. In addition, one has to make many decisions, some of which can make the difference between being able to get back or not.

These decisions are of such a magnitude, that when one is presented with decisions or concerns in the real world, they often end up looking rather trivial by comparison. This has the net effect of rendering them into the ‘not-so-important’ category.

The result is a liberating feeling. It’s not that I don’t care about these trivialities – it’s that I now see them for what they are. This means less stress and much more happiness! 😀

Anyways that’s enough of the inane wittering. I’ll sign off now with some photos from my many jaunts into the wilds:

Day 3’s short return to the railway station of 2.6km 25 mtrs ascent 331 mtrs descent. (Click for full sized version)

Day 3 was a spare day with a very short downward journey to the railway station.

Last days always seem to have this kind of elevation profile!

My heels felt just as bad as on the previous day, but luckily, the downhill nature of today’s walk would keep most of the boot pressure away from the blistered areas.

Here is the virtual photographic journey:

I awake on the morning of Day 3 and start to put on my clothes. There is definitely a secret knack to getting clothes on in a small one man tent 🙂

Behind me the sky has a beautiful orange glow from dawn’s rising sun.

The view Southwards down the coast toward Barmouth.

My face is a rosy red from yesterday’s sun. I hadn’t expected the weather to be as good as it was, so had neglected to pack sun cream. Lesson learnt!

From my previous walks I had learnt that I rarely eat the breakfasts on the morning of the last spare day. As a result I didn’t pack any. All that I will be having this morning will be a good hot coffee. The intent is to grab nibbles on the train on the journey home.

The view to the North over Cardigan Bay.

Again, as with all my camp spots, I leave the ground in pristine condition. One should always treat the countryside with respect so that future visitors may enjoy it too.

To the Southwest in the distance I eyeball the exit point which is a ladder over a wall.

Normally climbing these ladders wouldn’t be a problem, but my heal blisters made the climb up particularly unpleasant.

I’m now over the wall. It’s now just a case of following the trail downwards. For today there will be no real navigation to be done today.

Up ahead is the only other boggy area on this entire walk – an agreeable change from my usual haunt of Dartmoor!

In the distance I spot the next exit point – another ladder.

I pop over that ladder and continue to follow the trail downwards.

To the South I start to get glimpses of the beaches in and around Barmouth.

In the distance directly ahead I spot the two parallel walls marking the downward winding path that I need to take. At least I know where I need to be heading!

The track I’m on soon comes to a T-Junction at the bottom of the hill. I just need to hang a left here.

Just a case of hand-railing the wall Southward until I find the exit to the track with its two parallel walls.

There’s the turn off. This marks the border of the National Trust Land and the private farmlands of the lower slopes.

The walk is now very constrained 🙂 Just a case of keep heading downwards whilst admiring the view!

Up ahead I spot a dog – a sure sign that the owner isn’t too far behind. In this case it was a woman out for her early morning stroll!

Another ladder In this case I use the gate 🙂

With the parallel walls behind me the views start to open up again.

On the way down I spot this ‘obvious’ turn off to the left…

But it’s a red herring. Luckily, it is also well signposted as private land.

Nearly there! Down below right-centre I spot the steeple of the church I need to head toward. This church resides very close to the railway station so makes an excellent navigation marker.

The beaches are now noticeably closer from the loss of elevation.

Back into a walled trail again. I happen to know this is the very final section. It should take me directly to the road at the bottom.

On the way down, two lambs pop to a gate to great me. I wonder if they are expecting to be fed? Maybe they were just naturally curious.

There’s the road. The station is just up ahead…

*Zoom On* There is the sign to the station (on the lamp-post by the white van).

I’m now on the track down to the railway station itself.

There is the church that I was using as a reference point from the hills – it’s practically next door to the railway station.

I’m there! This station is right by the sea with good views up and down the coast.

Timing wise things weren’t too bad – only around 30 minutes to wait for the next train.

The view Northwards. At least I have a pleasant view whilst waiting for the train.

Another shot of the church – but this time from the railway station. This shows its true proximity.

The train arrives right on time! Unlike other stations, this is a request stop, so I actually have to flag the train down by holding out my hand.

There were some great views on the train journey home. Right now the train is pretty empty, but this doesn’t last long. By the time I get to Birmingham it is packed out like sardines with people crammed in everywhere.

So that ends this rather disastrous walk.

I have been in touch with the manufacturers of the boots, but they claim there is nothing wrong with them and that more than likely they were just ill fitting. These claims were asserted without ever having viewed the boots in question.

Ouch…. And only after around 12km all of which was practically on track…

From my point of view, their fit is quite similar to that of my Salomon’s and I don’t get any injuries from those.

I firmly believe that the Arc’teryx boots lack the appropriate padding in the heal region. In addition, a further inspection at home revealed a vertical seam running down the backs of the inner boots. I’m pretty sure it was these seams that were causing the problem.

The offending boots – a pair of Arc’teryx Bora 2’s. They look nice and were at least waterproof, but that’s the only good thing I can say about them.

It could be that my feet are just not the right shape for these boots. Either way, that will be their last journey – though I might consider the inners for waterproof camp slippers.

Day 2’s 10.6km route with 333 metres of ascent and 426 metres of descent. Top right one can see the experimental short ascent I made to see how my heels would cope. (Click for full sized image)

Day 2 was decision day. Do I proceed with the walk and head further into the wilderness or do I turn around and head back?

The heel injuries picked up the previous day from the new boots had really upset what was supposed to have been a relatively easy walk.

If I choose to proceed with the walk, I would be doing around 20km, most of which would be cross country over some pretty rugged terrain. I wasn’t sure whether my heels would be up to such a journey. What’s worse is that it could potentially result in them deteriorating further whilst also placing me deeper into the wilderness.

On the other hand, if I headed back the way I came, I would still have to walk at least 10km. But at least this would mainly be on tracks, with each step taking me closer to the railway station.

Heading back would also have the advantage that I didn’t have to worry about timing. 10km over a whole day is easily achievable – even with injuries.

The elevation profile for day 2.

The day was a glorious one, with hot sunshine and little in the way of winds. In many respects I couldn’t have hoped for better weather.

Anyways, enough of the preamble. Read on for the virtual walk for Day 2…

The view from the tent on the morning of day 2.

First things first… Breakfast! It should be noted that putting the boots on this morning was extremely painful

After breakfast I go through my well practiced decamping routine. As usual I leave the spot in a pristine condition – no one will ever know that I have camped here!

Although my heels were very painful, I decided to do a test climb up the hill to see how they would cope. It seems that any kind of ascent really aggravated them. Nevertheless I’m kind of hoping they would numb out a little to make the rest of the walk a possibility.

After a slow and painful ascent, I sit on this boulder to ponder whether or not I should proceed with the rest of the walk.

The view from the boulder is actually pretty good!

After much pondering I decide to turn back. I knew that most of today’s walk would be off trail with many steep ascents, some requiring climbing. Right now I was around 12km from a railway station, to commit further to the walk would have placed me much further away from help. In addition, I feared that the rougher terrain would exacerbate the heel situation. It was a tough decision, especially as I had no one around to discuss it with. I never like cancelling or curtailing a walk, but sometimes it is the right thing to do.

The descent seems to reduce the pain in the heels somewhat. I’m guessing this is because the foot’s weight is primarily bearing down on the front of the boot.

To my left on the hilltops I notice that the walls have significant holes in them. It looks like a ridge walk may well be a possibility here. During planning I had shied away from that ridge for fear that there would be no way across the hill’s extensive man made boundaries.

I soon get to the bottom of the hill and proceed broadly Westward toward the sea. Up ahead beyond the low ridge line should be the Llyn Irddyn tarn.

As soon as I clear that ridge line the tarn turns up just as expected!

Most of the walk back to the coast is downhill on a well made track. I feel robbed that the walk got cut short with such good weather and scenery.

I spot this beetle on my travels. Not sure what species it is – answers on a post card!

Wall boundaries like these make it exceedingly easy to work out one’s precise position on the trail, which helps with monitoring progress.

One of the many streams that I had to cross. I used this particular one to top up the Travel Tap water bottle. Copious green healthy vegetation like this is a sure sign that the water is clean!

Up ahead the sea becomes visible. I know I will soon be at the point where I will need to hang a left and start my first real ascent of the day.

To my right is the distinctive hill called Moelfre. It’s amazing how a little sun can make the scenery seem so much more inviting.

I take one last look behind me as I leave the hills behind.

The track’s descent gets steeper. I will soon be at the junction.

The obligatory ‘I-was-really-there’ shot 🙂

The junction soon pops into view. This marks the end of the initial descent.

The route I’m taking is called the Ardudwy Way! Not sure I can pronounce it!

The ascent has started. The pain in my heels has now gone up several notches. What’s worse is that it’s not a continuous pain that can be tuned out. I find myself shouting random expletives on particularly painful foot-falls.

This is a look behind me back to the sign. Even this short stint required a concerted effort. In many ways this has validated my decision to cut the walk short.

At least I have some decent scenery to try and take my mind off things!

It’s amazing how the state off one’s feet can have such a profound impact on a walk. This part should have been an easy stroll, but instead it was a painful and slow trek.

A look behind me shows that I have regained a fair bit of elevation, despite my difficulties.

The trail starts to flatten out much to my heel’s relief!

To my right are superb views over Cardigan Bay. This is a very scenic part of Wales and one that I’m surprised had taken me so long to visit!

Up ahead I can see the Bwlch Rhiwgr pass in the hills. This track will take me right up there before turning South.

The pass beckons. Although still painful, my heels have kind of numbed themselves out – it’s only the occasional foot fall that produces a shooting pain. I wonder how much of this is psychological? After all I only have two large blisters…

I’m now on the final ascent to the track at the pass. This part of the walk was particularly difficult. I consoled myself in that today’s walk was very short with no time pressures whatsoever. As such, I could take my time. Every foot placement was effectively put in the bank!

Behind me is a great view onto the coast. Here we are looking directly at a local airfield – though you will have to peer carefully through the haze to see it. I only spotted it when I saw a plane flying rather too low to the ground, until I noticed it was actually landing!

There’s the pass and my turn off to the right. I can’t wait to get up there so as to alleviate the pressure on my heels.

Having reached the pass, I now turn toward the coast. This part thankfully has a slight descent.

The boulder field I find myself in requires careful foot placement. Occasionally I get it wrong and end up involuntarily shouting out loud expletives. Thankfully there was no one around to hear them. There are many large quartz boulders here, like the one in the picture.

Once out of the bolder field the rest of the walk West is rather pleasant. I know that once I clear the wall up ahead I will need to contour around Southwards and start ascending again.

Here I am now starting to contour around the hill Southwards. I’m keeping my eyes peeled for the track which should be somewhere below me to the right.

This is the view behind me to the coast. Given that there are no real time constraints on today’s walk, I spend some time practicing getting navigational fixes from the compass. I’m particularly interested in the wall shapes and how they differ from the ones on the map.

As I head Southward I start coming across these fenced off areas delineating the boundaries of old Mine subsidence.

When I peer into these areas they don’t look too dangerous, but the sign on the barbed wire clearly shows a falling man and the danger of serious injury.

I’m now on a shallow ascent Southward. Water is starting to get a little low, but I know that I’m around 1km away from a water source, so there are no worries.

As I’m hiking I keep hearing an occasional loud and rather odd sound. At first I think it’s wildlife until I look upwards…

At this point I’m boundary counting so as to obtain my precise position on the map. Above me, the glider pilot seems to be following, so I stop to wave!

Although the ascent is painful, this part is very idyllic. I take my time and savour the moment!

The original plan for today was around 20km further into the wilds. Instead I find myself doing a short 10km extraction stint. As such I have plenty of time to play with. I decide to stop off here for an hour to enjoy the scenery and watch the world go by.

Behind me, one can see that the Moelfre hill has now receded into the distance. I can remember the feeling of pure bliss I had simply by lying down on the grass on such a warm day with superb views.

In the distance I can see three gliders riding the thermals. I wish I was up there with them!

After around an hour, I decide it’s time to finish off today’s short journey. I know I’m around 2km away from the planned end point, so there are no pressures whatsoever.

These ladders prove to be a problem for my heels. Unfortunately there are many of them to gingerly traverse.

After going over the wall, it’s a case of following the hill Southward until I see another wall. There should be a stream in the field bounded by that wall. I decided that I would make this a stop off point for a late lunch.

I soon come across the corner of the wall. The map shows the entrance to the field in the wrong place, but this isn’t an issue with today’s superb visibility.

Here’s the entrance to the field! It’s on the West wall not the North wall…. cough…cough…..Ordnance Survey….

I’m in the field headed Southward on a descent that should take me to the last water source before camp.

I now have eyes on the stream!

There it is! Time to take off the rucksack and get the bottles filled.

Although I’m only stopping off for a lunch break, I fill up all three bottles as this is the last water source before my planned camp spot.

On with the lunch! The JetBoil Sol is exceedingly efficient at boiling water. It’s also extremely light and takes up very little space in the rucksack. Highly recommended!

After lunch I climb over the wall and head Southward towards these old mine workings. I know I need to cross them to intercept a wall to the West.

I soon get eyes on the wall. It’s now a case of hand-railing it until I get to the ladder crossing it. The extra 3kg from the extra water that I’m carrying is definitely making itself felt!

The view directly ahead toward Barmouth in the South.

The superb view behind me over Cardigan Bay.

There’s my route across the wall. In addition I can see the planned camp spot at the edge of the hill by the sheepfold in the distance.

I spot a grassy area to the left of the sheep fold up ahead. The rocks are giving me some concern over the depth of the soil. Would there be enough to make camp here?

As it turns out, soil depth is not an issue provided I use shallow peg angles. This is the superb view out of the Akto tent.

The view Southward from the tent. In terms of views, I had picked the perfect spot. In addition, I knew I was around 1.5km away from the railway station which would all be downhill too! A bonus!

The view over the Akto Tent Northwards over the bay.

The view down the hill from the tent. Somewhere below by the sea is the railway station for tomorrow’s departure.

Another view of the Akto Tent!

I scout around to see if I can eyeball the ladder exiting this field for tomorrows walk. Better to place it now whilst I have assured visibility.

I get back to the tent and gingerly take off my boots. Even with plasters, both blisters had become much worse. I hate to think what state they would have been in had I elected for the full 20km cross country walk further into the wilderness. (You might want to skip the next two pictures 🙂 )

An inspection of the left foot shows that the blisters have got a lot redder and a little deeper…

It looks like the right foot has faired little better. I can even see where the sock has imprinted its pattern. Although these are only blisters, they were exceedingly painful and made today’s walk a lot harder than it should have been.

Boots are off and feet re-plastered. I lie back and enjoy the peace and tranquillity.

Eventually it’s time for supper. Tonight as is traditional for my walks the last meal is always a curry. Here it is prior to reconstitution.

After 10 minutes with boiling water I have one excellent curry. I had bought these Mountain House large meals a long time ago. Alas, they are not made any more – at least in Europe. Any future meals will be much smaller. I will probably take this opportunity to try out other vendors.

My figure casts a long shadow as the sun starts to sink in the West. The moon has also put in an appearance!

I love the yellow-orange colour tones of the scenery during sunset – it really lends a different character to the view.

To the North the bay starts to take on an yellow-orange haze too!

It’s not often that I have the tent orientated Westward toward sunset. But when I do, the views are superb!

Down below, various lights are starting to come on in the various small towns and villages below.

A beautiful sunset!

The sun soon starts to dip below the horizon. The end of the day is nigh!

With the sun gone, it’s time to turn in for a spot of reading and an early night as I need to get to the train station relatively early tomorrow.

The camp spot with a view at the end of day 2. The red circle, bottom left, is the railway station that I need to hike to the following morning – one of my shortest station hikes ever! (Click for larger version)

That’s it for day 2! Although I was initially uncertain about my decision to abort, the walking on this day pretty much confirmed that it was the right thing to do.

I always leave the last day as a spare day to take up journey slack, but I have never been in a position where I’m camped so close to the railway station. This should make tomorrow morning’s walk a breeze!

Given that this was my first walk in a long while, the whole route had a lot of slack built into it. The full route covered around 40 km – a distance that I’d normally do in two days, but given the lack of recent on-the-ground-time I decided to allocate 3 days for this one.

Three days would work out fine as the first and last days would each have a 5 hour train journey in them, with the latter requiring a relatively early appearance at the target train station.

Despite the lack of recent hikes, my daily training regime had been running like clockwork and had upped the stakes from 3.5 km a day to around 5 km a day with a 20 kg* load. (* I don’t actually know exactly how much the training rucksack weighs, but many of my work colleagues assure me that it’s way over 20 kilos… )

The training meant that the hills that I encountered didn’t present that much of a problem. It also had the side benefit of making the 15 kg rucksack seem insanely light – but then again that is the point! 🙂

The walk was pretty hilly and like most walks I have done it starts with a hill climb!

Since the walk I have often reflected on this first day…

Primarily to ask why my feet got so badly blistered. Whilst the boots do take the lion’s share of the blame, I believe that on reflection, it was my drive to get to the first camp spot by LLyn Irddyn. This drive had clouded my judgement and had perhaps prevented me from noticing the gradual deterioration of my feet until it was way too late.

One of the hardest things when hiking solo is being objective and maintaining general awareness. Both of these take considerable effort, especially if one is fatigued or hell bent on achieving some kind of objective.

The lesson I have taken from this is to not ignore pain from any part of the body, especially the feet. Any discomfort should be investigated and rectified at the earliest convenience. I can’t help thinking that if I had stopped when my feet first became sore, I might have been able to do something about it with plasters etc. But alas, my focus on getting to the camp spot seemed to override all sensibilities.

Apart from the feet, the one other major characteristic of this walk was the extensive stone wall networks in the area. Many are tall and topped with barbed wire. Access across their boundaries are far and few between which heavily constrains ones options in terms of routing.

There were occasions where navigation was hampered by Ordnance Survey’s (OS) maps not showing these boundaries accurately. I can remember thinking at the time that I’m glad it wasn’t foggy, otherwise my map could have got me in a pickle on more than one occasion.

Given that stone walls are relatively static and that OS has access to aerial photography, I can see no excuse for inaccurate maps.

Anyways, time to take the virtual walk with photographs…

After five hours on the train I finally make it to LLanaber station.

The station has a picturesque view as it is right on the coast of Cardigan Bay with its extensive beaches.

Once on the road by the station, I know that I need to hang a right. The trail that I’ll need is just to the left of the building up ahead.

The climb is now on! This part of the walk is constrained by walls on both sides which makes navigation a breeze.

Despite the lack of walks I have been doing recently, the 5km lunchtime training walks have paid off. I was genuinely surprised at the overall ease of the hill climb.

This is the view to the South toward Barmouth.

I eventually get to this gate which marks the boundary into National Trust areas. From here on in I am no longer constrained within the walls of the track. However, I do have other constraints imposed by the maze of walled fields!

Much of the navigation on this section of the walk is about trying to locate the ladders or gates to allow me to cross the walled boundaries. You would be surprised how inaccurate OS Maps are in this regard…

The view Northwards up Cardigan Bay. This looks like a good place to be if you enjoy your beaches!

As I proceed higher up there is evidence of burnt heather. I’m not sure if this is as a result of land management or an accident. It does smell relatively recent though.

For the most part navigation was pretty easy as the trail was easily discernible. The real cross country walking would have taken place on Day 2, but alas, it was not to be.

Kit load out was pretty standard and weighed in at a little under 15 Kg. At this point my feet were sore, but I wasn’t paying much attention to them. My sole focus was on reaching Llyn Irddyn – the planned camp spot for this day.

Up ahead were the hills of Bwlch Cwmmaria. I would have liked to climb them for the trig points, but this part of the hill has many walled off areas with no means of traversing them without having to climb – not something I wanted to do as one can damage the walls and possibly themselves when doing this.

I soon arrive at the first high point of today’s journey which provides a good view of the trail headed Northward. It’s always handy to eyeball terrain features when you get a panoramic view like this as it helps with the navigation when you are in amongst it!

I soon get to a place where there should be a stream for my first water top up point. But the OS map has got it wrong. Luckily for me, the stream is there, but it’s on the other-side of the wall – not the side shown on the map. In addition, the building up ahead is also missing from the map. Many of my recent OS maps have had many glaring issues – even in more popular places like Dartmoor. OS used to take pride in their maps and built up a formidable reputation. However, I now suspect that these days, they are completely profit driven and as a result the quality has declined. I’m seriously considering using other mapping vendors in the future…

After crossing the wall I’m relieved to see the stream as water supplies were starting to run low!

This whole area has many fenced off areas like this one warning people of subsidence – presumably from old mine-works. The sign shows a man falling down a hole.

It’s now a simple walk Northwards whilst counting wall boundaries to allow for accurate position determination. As with many features, the sheep pen on the left is not on the map either. In fact I found that the accuracy of boundaries on the map to be very suspect. The whole point of buying maps at this scale (1:25000) is so that one can see the boundaries and plan accordingly…

Far to the North I get the first glimpse of Moelfre – the characteristically shaped hill centre left.

There are many sheep here. Normally sheep run away at the sight of a hiker, but these ones seem genuinely curious!

I spend a good 5 minutes here trying to work out the best way across the wall on the left. According to my map there should be a way through the wall at this corner, but it isn’t there. To be fair, the digital map is modified in that it now shows the trail going to that corner and terminating. At first I think I’m in the wrong place because of the maze of walls in this area. But various compass checks prove I’m where I should be.

Behind me I spot a wooden pole in the distance. This is a marker to the trail. I had ignored it as that route is marked with green dashes on the map which means ‘Public Right of Way’ rather than a trail. In my experience, the green dashes often bear little resemblance to any trail (not a mapping fault – as these are showing rights of way – not trails). Instead, over the years, I have learnt to look of for the actual trail markings on the map – the much fainter black dashed lines. This case proved to be the odd one out where the green dashes were the ones to follow! In many respects I wish OS would either remove the green markings, or change them to follow the actual trails in the area – that way they would be far more useful.

To get over the wall on the left I have to hand rail it up the hill towards the Bwlch y Rhiwgr pass up ahead. There should be a means across the wall where it crosses a bridle way originating from that pass.

However, I have to take a little diversion away from the wall to get around a deep bog – the dark brown area between the camera and the wall.

I finally get to the gate that will allow me through the wall. The next stage of the walk is all down hill. It’s just a case of following this trail until I get to its end at around 2 km.

There is a parallel track on the left. Luckily the land owners have done a good job in sign posting the trail. As a result I need to cross over to the track on the left.

There aren’t too many walls to count on this part of the journey, though one does get the occasional feature like this stream which passes under a stone foot bridge up ahead. These features allow one to accurately gauge progress.

The trail is very waterlogged in places necessitating that one walks to one side of it. This must be a relatively long lived feature as one can make out the ‘new’ trail created by the passing of many feet trying to avoid the water.

I’m finally of the last stage of this leg. If I bump into a major stream in amongst the trees up ahead, I know I have gone too far! 🙂 In theory there should be a turn off to the right to take me up to the Llyn Irddyn tarn.

The right hand turn makes an appearance right on cue. It is even well sign posted!

I now start the ascent up to the tarn. At this stage I am now acutely aware that there is something wrong with my feet. I guess the up hill walk is causing the rear of the boots to rub more heavily on my heals.

To the North I get some great views onto Moelfre. Things are now starting to feel more wilderness like.

As I climb up I’m a little disappointed that the tarn is out of view. In my minds eye I kind of imagined seeing it on my right as the trail wound past it. Overall it was strange knowing it was there, but not being able to see it!

The view to the North West. This is what day 1 was about – getting me into position for the wilderness-proper so that day 2 would be a cross country wilderness extravaganza!

To my right there is still no sign of the tarn. The original plan had called for me to camp by it, but instead I decide to camp higher up the hill to stay out of the way of any casual wanderers!

The track soon reaches the first stream of two. At first it looks like I’m going to have to ford it, but when I get nearer, I spot this foot bridge just off to the right of the track. This is another detail missing from the map…

Back on with the trail. This section takes me to the highest point alongside the tarn at 320 mtrs. Surely the tarn will be visible when I reach the top?

Alas not. No sign of the tarn whatsoever. Rather than potentially miss out on seeing it, I decide to go for a short off track jaunt up the embankment to view it. I almost regret the diversion as it proves to be extremely painful to my heals.

I get to the top where I finally get a view onto the Llyn Irddyn tarn. At least it proves I’m in the right place 🙂

I’m now back on the trail. Although the weather seems to be closing in, I elect to stop for a late lunch break at the next stream to give my painful heals a rest prior to the ascent of the hill.

The view behind me onto the tarn.

This is the second to last wall before the hill climb. There should be a stream approximately 100 mtrs further on. This will be my lunch spot. Up until now I have been climbing the gates, but my heals are so painful that I’m now going through them instead.

I reach the second stream which even has a good seat in the form of a boulder on the left – the ideal lunch spot!

The late lunch consists of cheese spread, oatcakes and mulligatawny soup. I always prefer to make lunches near a water source as it means I don’t have to worry about the water consumed to make the soup. It also provides a means to clean up the cup afterward.

The view from my lunch spot. Not too bad. However, I’m not really taking in the view. Instead, I’m thinking about my heals and wondering why they were so painful.

After I have eaten I carry on up the trail which is now starting to ascend the hill. This whole section of the walk was very painful. It seems that anything uphill was really aggravating the heals. I’m now seriously wondering whether the whole walk would be in jeopardy or not…

On the way up I find this stone in memory of Janet Haigh. Apparently she was a keen walker and really loved this route – she was even walking it at a spritely age of eighty four!

I’m now on the ascent proper. Given the state of my feet I elect to stop and make camp at the first opportunity.

The track is an odd one in that it is a hybrid of a track and a stream!

As I ascend I start to get some great views down the valley toward the coast.

Further elevation reveals part of the Llyn Bodlyn reservoir to the North.

I soon get to a sheltered plateau like area. It even has a stream running through it – the perfect camp spot!

After a little scouting around and some test comfort lie-downs I decide that this is the spot!

Up goes the Akto tent. I have had this tent for six years and it has been bullet proof. It has never let me down – even in the worst of storms. It might not be the lightest tent out there, but it’s one of the most practical. I especially like the vestibule which is large enough to hold and protect the rucksack from the elements.

As is usual, the first job after the tent is up is to fill up all my bottles with filtered water. This allows me to make meals and have many drinks without having to worry about going back to the stream.

The stream is very shallow and there is only one real place where one can top up one’s bottles. Luckily, this distinctive boulder is nearby. This will allow me to easily relocate it tomorrow morning prior to that days walk.

It takes a while to filter all the water, but when out and about one rarely has any time pressures. This water probably doesn’t need filtering, but I take no risks, especially as I am travelling alone.

I get back to the tent and decide to inspect my feet. This is the left one. I can’t believe that they got into this state after only 12km! At least I now know why the walk has been so painful!

The right foot faired no better either. Both feet are very painful. I have plasters, but decide to let them air in the hope the blisters would dry up and harden up ready for tomorrow’s walk. Alas, this does not prove to be the case.

The offending boots – a pair of Arc’teryx Bora 2’s. I have never had boots shred my feet over such a short distance. The odd thing is that it has glowing reviews on many sellers websites. That said, I know of a few of them that will refuse to publish negative reviews…

The view from the tent is pretty good. I don’t normally camp high up as water can be an issue. But here, it’s not a problem!

Time to get the meal on. This trip used the last of my Mountain House supplies. A recent internet check shows that these are no longer available in the Uk This is a shame as I really liked their meals and you can buy them in large portions. To make the meal all I need do is add boiling water, stir and then leave for 10 minutes. I’m always concerned at the amount of water one has to put in (550ml). It always seems like it is too much, but over the 10 minutes the ingredients absorb a lot of the water.

Once the boiling water is added, I tend to wrap the meals in a towel so that they retain a lot of their heat during the 10 minute wait for the food to reconstitute.

After 20 minutes – voila one hot meal! This one is a lasagne flavoured pasta. Trust me, it tastes a lot better than it looks! 🙂 After the meal I turn in for an early night.

Day 1’s camp spot was a good one. Up and out of the way with a good view and its own water supply!

Day 1 ended with concerns about my feet. I decided not to make any rash decisions. Instead, I would wait for the morning and see how they felt. Tune in for the next instalment to see how that decision went!

As plans went, this one was a good one. I was pleased with the route and the level of fitness that I had attained. I had also thought that I was pleased with my kit too – in all, everything was looking very good indeed – and that included the British weather!

However, as we shall see, things didn’t go exactly to plan. Yes, I’m looking at you Mr Arc’teryx…

The kit was pretty much my standard load out, with just one exception…

The kit for the 2+1 day journey. Everything is the same, except the boots…

The kit all packed and ready to go! Total weight is 15 kg.

As usual, I was getting my pre-walk excitement jitters. But despite this, I turned in for a very early night as I needed to be at the train station for 5:30 in the morning!

The only thing that was worrying me slightly were the new boots – a pair of Arc’teryx Bora 2’s. These had been worn on two of my lunch time 5 km speed-walks with a 20Kg load. After the second walk, something didn’t feel quite right with the heal of the left boot…

I was worried enough by this that I had elected to take home my training boots, a pair of Salomon Quest 4’s, despite the fact that they were falling apart. I felt I needed to have another trusted option…

Alas, when it came to the crunch, I picked the wrong pair of boots. I went with the Arc’teryx ones despite my misgivings.

The end result? One aborted walk due to shredded heals…

The damage had already been done after just 12 km. But here are the feet after 22 km….

I couldn’t believe it.

No boot that I have ever used has so comprehensively shredded my feet in quite so short a distance. The terrain wasn’t even that bad on Day 1, yet the boots put me in the unenviable position of having to make a safety call with regard to entering further into the wilderness.

I could barely walk on level terrain. Uphill inclines of any kind generally resulted in a slowed and pained progress that was accompanied to the sound of grunting, growling and many shouted expletives. If there had been anybody nearby, they might have thought that I was suffering from Tourettes…

I really detest abandoning walks, but the reduced speed and the ever present pain meant that I elected to head back 12 km rather than risk heading a further 17 km into the wilderness. (The decision will be described in detail on Day 2’s posting)

The boots – a pair of Arc’teryx Bora 2’s. These are really not the boots you are looking for…

I wondered why the boots were so bad.

After feeling around the heal region it became apparent that apart from the sole, there was zero padding on all three sides. The sides and rear are made of a rather solid rubber like material that rubbed at the back of my heals every-time I ascended a hill.

On reaching home I immediately compared them to my Solomans and my Scarpas. The comparisons proved to be highly enlightening. It became exceedingly obvious that there is a design flaw with the Arc’teryx Bora 2s – both of the other pairs exhibited a lot of cushioned ankle support in these areas, something woefully missing from the Arc’teryx Bora 2s.

In retrospect with the benefit of hindsight I should have acted on my gut feeling about the boots. At the time, I had even commented to my work colleagues that I wasn’t sure about them. At least, next time, I will take more notice of what my gut is telling me.

The damage to my heals are so severe, that even in the comfort of my flat I find it hard to go from a seated position to the standing – mainly due to the shooting pain as the scar tissue tries to stretch to accommodate my new posture.

As for the walked route? There isn’t actually much of it…

This is all that was completed:

The rather foreshortened route consisting of 25.2 km with 1110 mtrs of ascent and 1063 mtrs of descent. (Click for larger version)

When my feet heal again, I fully intend to redo this walk, as I have missed out on what promised to be many exciting sights and sounds!

2016 only had two walks in it. The first of which was cut short by appalling weather, whilst the second was just a day walk.

It had been an odd year in that I never really felt compelled to go out and hike, not like the previous years where I had that bee in my bonnet.

I don’t know if it’s a case of simply needing some time away from it, or whether its something more fundamental.

As mentioned in one of my first ever blog posts, one of the reasons for hiking was the elevated quiescent happiness that I derived from the activity – which in itself becomes a little addictive.

My current theory is that for 2016 at least, my overall happiness at home has shot up from previous years – and maybe it is this feeling of general well-being that has perhaps taken the edge off my wander-lust?

That said, I did thoroughly enjoy the last walk of 2016 – so I still find hiking to be a fun activity. In fact that particular walk kick-started my training regime again – which has got to be a good thing!

Going forward, I don’t think that the number of hikes that I will do will ever exceed the 2012-2014 levels, but I do see myself doing a lot more than last year.

The big issue to resolve this year will be to find a decent walking planner as the one I had been using is now rather out of date with regard to the maps it is using.

In terms of raw stats I only managed:

1 Multi-day solo hike over 3 days (it got cut short)

Plus a one day hike for a total of 60.6 km – by far the lowest total since starting the blog.

Hopefully, I will get myself a little more active in 2017 – I’m certainly getting that feeling that I want to explore again – so this should help! 🙂

Anyways, onto the diary:

2016’s Walking Diary

Jan 2016 – 3 days on Dartmoor

It would be fair to say that the weather on Dartmoor was a little pants!

This walk was beset by 3 days of very poor weather consisting of rain, sleet and exceptionally high winds.

However, it did provide an opportunity to meet up with fellow bloggers Catherine and Roger at Crockern Farm. I really enjoyed popping around and seeing the renovation work they had been carrying out on the farm.

This walk got abandoned early. Half way through day 3 I got my brother to pick me up due to the excessively high winds. When I got dropped off at my parents house, I had discovered that even the Royal Marines had cancelled exercises on that day!

The 42.3 km walked route with 1560 mtrs of ascent and 1284 mtrs of descent. (Click for a full sized version of the map)

Oct 2016 – 1 Day on the Brecon Beacons

The views were stunning!

As noted in the blog entry for this walk, it was a rather weird one! It featured many firsts – such as driving to and from the destination and also the use of an off-the-shelf plan as opposed to the usual custom routing that I normally create.

I really enjoyed this walk and was surprised at just how close the Brecons are to Bristol!

The full clockwise 18.3 km route with 1339 mtrs of ascent and 1201 mtrs of descent. The red spot on the left marks the start and end point.

2016 Equipment Changes

The changes this year were pretty modest, mostly due to the fact that my current kit is already pretty good and that I hadn’t been out all that often.

One of the most important changes was the waterproof trousers:

A pair of Arc’Teryx M Betas made from Gore-tex Pro.

Overall I ended up being disappointed by both these trousers and the GoreTex Pro hard-shell that I was using. Both had wetted out on the Dartmoor walk, but rather more alarmingly I found that I was even getting wet on my short 45 minute lunchtime training walks!

I might write up a separate article on this as I have had other breathable materials fail too – such as eVent as used by RAB.

It’s a controversial view, but I don’t actually think that these materials are waterproof. Any ‘water-proofness’ is simply down to their external chemical coatings.

At the end of the day I guess that’s the fundamental clue. Any material that requires water repellent to be sprayed externally probably points to the fact that the material itself will let in water.

There are those that will say that the wetness that I have experienced was simply sweat – but I can assure readers that this was simply not the case. These days I firmly believe that breathable materials are simply a marketing gimmick to make a lot of money…

Other equipment additions are the cameras:

The Olympus TG-4 which is completely waterproof!

The Olympus needs a lot more care when taking a picture – at least compared to my standard Sony, but it’s one rugged camera! I had it exposed to three days of rain and it never batted an eyelid! – Highly recommended for those wet walks!

And a Sony A6300…

The above camera was used for the Brecons walk and I found the image quality to be exceptional. In fact it is so good that the images could be used at 1:1 with no scaling – this opens up the photos to more creative cropping.

As a bonus the body is supposed to be weather-proofed too, though I have yet to test this.

I can see this camera being used on a lot of future walks – despite being heavier than my trusty Sony DSC-HX9V.

Other kit changes for 2016 were extremely minor in nature. However, if you a interested these can be viewed at the end of this blog entry.

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About the Author

Firstly welcome to my blog! My name is Rob Pollard and this blog details my onward journey from couch potato to backpacker. Hopefully it will spur more people on to take up this rewarding activity. Have fun reading it!

Legal Stuff…

Backpacking is an activity that carries an inherent risk. I can take no responsibility for any injuries (or worse) that are incurred through trying to emulate any walk in this blog.

If you don't know what the risks are, find out and get trained! Even better, find an instructor that can teach you the safe way to do things and make sure that you carry the proper kit.

All images are copyright Rob Pollard. Do not use without permission. Asking would be to your advantage too, as the ones posted on this blog are scaled down quite considerably from the originals - plus they represent only a tiny fraction of the images taken on each walk! :)